Refuelling and Rectifying
by Witty Eagle Proud Ravenclaw
Summary: Eleventh has to re-fuel with Clara by his side, but in Cardiff, he bumps into a hauntingly familiar face. Platonic!11/Clara and nods to 10&Donna friendship. Cameo appearance from a minor character hidden within!


Refuelling and Rectifying

Author Note: All familiar ideas stem from Russell T. Davies, not me. Season 7, of course, but not really following on from anything. I'm not counting this as a crossover because the cameo appearance here is quite brief, and the character's appeared in Dr. Who at a crucial time anyway. On the show...

The Tardis groaned from the console room, and Clara's face slackened as she walked in. The Doctor, suspecting his companion had heard, smiled reassurance.

"Nothing to worry about, really." he grinned in his way, straightening the bow-tie.

"Even I know that those groans are a bad th-" but Clara was stopped by a groan. "Hang on..." she trailed, noticing something else within the sound. "That sounds like-"

"-it's slowing? It is. Simple fuel change is all that's needed." the Doctor chirped.

"But where are you going to find diesel or... whatever you use in... wherever we are!"

"You know me well, Clara. Right now, we seem to be whizzing past the planet Messaline, now terraformed..." he took a pause here, and resumed with a sigh "...and the 'diesel' that the old girl uses is in fact time energy. So we're back to Earth!"

"Well that wasn't what I was expected." Clara mused, looking up at the Doctor with an impish grin. He returned it with a similar grin and wink. "Why Earth?"

"A shaky rift in the thread of time and space. Right slap-dash in Cardiff. Basically a diesel pump for this magnificent blue box!" he said.

"Of all the places a break in space-time could be..." Clara laughed heartily.

"Right, 2008, just to be on the safe side, avoid the leeway... and done!"

"Good opportunity to stretch, then." Clara beamed. The Doctor laughed as she stretched upwards to look him in the eye. "Getoff!" she teased at his hair-ruffle.

"Right, Miss Oswald. Bit of sightseeing while the old girl re-fuels?" the Doctor asked.

"I readily accept, Doctor." she smiled, taking his preferred arm. They exited the Tardis, and Clara noticed a white haze just out of her vision, assuming it was the rift.

"I remember you saying you would 'like to see something awesome'." he mused.

"True. So it's sightseeing as opposed to aliens skulking today, is it?" Clara chuckled.

"Oh, plenty of those around here, Clara." he muttered, an edge to his voice. "That rift is a gateway when it opens wide." he finished, looking out of the corner of his eye.

"Do I see..." his companion trailed, noticing the pavement jerk around.

"Torchwood HQ. Whereas I correct alien wrong-doing out there, they fix the rift hobos, if you like. And you, the impossible girl, are bound to see past the perception filter."

"Like a see-through hood over my eyes." she clicked. The Doctor beamed. "Just tell me something." she asked, looking into his eyes. "Did you mean for me to know?" Green met brown. The weary soul thought this over. Cardiff could mean so much...

"I needed to re-fuel, and the rift is an easy way. But I'd like to think you would want to know as much as possible about this kind of thing." he smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Clara hugged his chest gently, knowing he was looking out for her, that not everything was lovely out there. But what was lovely, was his gift to her.

"Isn't a sixties police box a bit of an eyesore?" Clara teased. The Doctor laughed.

"True, it does look mildly conspicuous. Cloak on!" he grinned, waving the sonic. After a few childish races around the streets, both of them were a bit puffed out.

"Y-you st-started it, D-Doctor!" Clara breathed heavily. "Ah!"

"I so d-did not!" he countered back after tickling her. "You said 'catch me!'"

"I? I, Clara Oswald, the impossible girl? Well, I suppose. Since I'm not possible, you can't catch me, you space-man." she joked. The Doctor blinked and laughed - she was so silly, that Clara. Suddenly a brash London accent caught his ear.

"Honestly, Shaun! A few right turns and you get lost! Some road trip!" a female voice laughed in the distance, followed by a faint car door. The Doctor froze.

"Doctor?" Clara asked tenderly. She got a strained smile in return. A redheaded woman emerged in the distance, and walked up to them randomly.

"Finally, civilization!" Donna Temple-Noble gasped, and the Doctor almost laughed. "Don't know what you find amusin', buster, but can you help me find the cathedral?"

"Sure. Go back on the roundabout, couple of left turns..." the bow-tie-wearing Time Lord paused for a second "...and you follow the road straight on." he finished.

Had he seen Donna's face turn weird at 'left turns'? It must have been imaginary.

"Thanks mate." she said, and that cheeky grin that the Doctor had known so well was back, splitting her face with relief. "We need more... this is when I need your name!"

"Smith. John Smith." the Doctor said, a flash of sadness in his green orbs.

"More John Smiths in the world, willin' to give directions." Donna said, a friendly arm slap following the speech. It was the Doctor who looked full of relief just then. Without a word, she walked away with a parting wave. The Gallifreyan mouthed 'bye Donna' as she was giving directions to Shaun. But Clara could lip-read very well.

"How come you knew her name? Then again, she looked familiar to you." she asked.

The Doctor, so full of fondness at that moment, past for Donna and present for Clara, offered an explanation once he had wiped a tear from his eye.

"That, Clara, was Donna Noble. I suppose she came to Cardiff with her lottery cash."

"Chinny..." the petite brunette whispered, urging him to go on. He looked down.

"Donna was one of my absolute best friends, and did a great sacrifice for the universe. But at a price." he breathed, for Clara's face had changed from surprise to empathic shock when he said 'but a price'. She nodded a 'go on'.

"She got my basic brain elements in the sacrifice, and I had to wipe her memories of me straight afterwards. Her brain would've burnt if I hadn't." he sighed sadly.

"Oh, Doctor..." Clara was on the verge of choking, and hugged him.

"That does not mean however" the Doctor said with a firmness "that I purposely drop the people I travel with. And definitely not you, Clara." he said with a smile.

"I know, chin-boy. And no, I won't call you space-man anymore, since I guessed-"

"-that was Donna's nickname for me. Yes, it was." he smiled. Clara relaxed, now thankful happy nostalgia had overcome the one who meant the world to her. With renewed vigour, they ran back to the Tardis, the Doctor playfully spinning Clara around, careful of the pavement. A brunette a bit taller than Clara noticed them.

"Can never to be trusting of the pavement in this city." she smirked, hopping up onto it. It twinged and the woman moved downwards. Clara muttered something.

"Yes, it is special. I'm off to work." the Welsh native smiled, knowing somehow that the Doctor and Clara were trustworthy with a wink. "Gwen Cooper, ready to assist."

"Gwen Cooper... did you help me alongside lots of others with the Daleks?"

"I did help prevent a Dalek attack, but... you?" Gwen pondered. The Doctor laughed.

"Different face." he said, his voice echoing to Gwen now.

"Did that face cause as much trouble as this one?" Clara joked. The Doctor ruffled her hair again teasingly. "Well, this face better make sure the Tardis doesn't overload with energy or some crazy thing like that."

"I know my Tardis, Clara. She'll know when to take us on another wacky adventure."

"You didn't have plastic surgery before I met you, did you?" Clara asked.

"Nope. When my body feels that it has run its course, it starts over. Little Time Lord trick. Sort of a way of cheating death." he winked. "Except... it means I change." he finished, flopping about that ridiculous fringe of his. Clara beamed at him.

"Well it's the face right now I trust completely and trust to take me to silly places."

"That can be arranged." he smiled, waving his sonic and the Tardis emerged from the thin air. "Rendezvous in the thirties, Miss Oswald?" he said, placing his hand on Clara's and guiding her back into the blue box like the ludicrously nutty gentleman he was. She nodded vigorously as he used his other hand to work the controls.

"I can't wait! Black-and-white films, classy culture, calm before the oncoming storm!"

And with the familiar wheezing, the Doctor and Clara were laughing, off to the past.

AN: Not my usual fluffy Whoufflé train of thought, and heavy on the angst in places. I'm just too eager for Donna to meet Eleventh without consequence in the land of fan-fiction, and I feel he would've wanted to wrap things up the best he could via a loophole. As for Gwen, the Doctor landed in 2008 to avoid running into his previous incantation, so it's post-Exit Wounds.


End file.
